Music With Friends: A Daily Collective Project
A friend of mine brought up an idea of posting a new track each day within a collective Spotify playlist where we would listen and talk about each other's picks. We all have different tastes in music, so I felt it would be cool to post my opinions on each song we place inside the playlist. There are a total of four of us within the group: Me, Nick, Luke, and Trevor. Don't know how long we will be doing this for, but I'm excited to see this result! |
| 1 |  | Smallpeople
Afterglow
Luke’s Pick: Magic Interference: A solid progressive house track that builds off of a variety of vocal samples, bells, and horns. While it is quite relaxing and a considerably groovy track, I feel the runtime is a bit long clocking in at around 6 min when 4 or so could have sufficed. My Rating: 3/5 |
| 2 |  | Rosalia
Los Angeles
Nick’s Pick: A Pale: Starting with a beautiful vocal chord, the track quickly descends into a drug infused glitch hop track that is incredibly infectious. My Rating: 3.5/5 |
| 3 |  | Panacea (USA)
Ink Is My Drink
My Pick: Invisible Seas: A chilled hip-hop track reminiscent of Nujabes, Invisible Seas ebbs and flows quietly with its delicate production and vocal performance. A track that seeks to entrance you in the world of Ink is my Drink, one of the most underappreciate hip hop albums of the 2000’s. My Rating: 4/5 |
| 4 |  | James Pants
James Pants
Luke’s Pick: Every Night: Entrancing production and a beautiful synth line that layers down this detailed and brimming house track. While some of the focus I feel is lost with the introduction of the vocals, the out of this world production is just so jarringly brilliant that its hard not to like it. My Rating: 4/5 |
| 5 |  | Billy Woods
Known Unknowns
Luke’s Pick: Bush League: The sporadic almost El-P like production give way to Wood’s spitting some emotionally crunching bars. It hits hard and damn is that chorus catchy as hell. My Rating: 4/5 |
| 6 |  | The Mad Conductor
Renegade Space Rock
My Pick: Venom: I do not like Reggae for the most part, but if all Reggae sounded like this I feel like I would appreciate the genre a bit more. This is a goofy and ridiculous track, but there is something so entrancing about the ska-hop (lol?) track. The MC performance in particular is uniquely refreshing, and with gang vocals and a horn solo this was by far one of the weirdest hip-hop tracks I have jammed in a while. My Rating 4.5/5 |
| 7 | | Elon Musk
Don't Doubt ur Vibe
Luke’s Pick: Don’t Doubt ur Vibe: I could not stop laughing at the absurdity, seriously why does this exist? My Rating: ?/5 |
| 8 |  | Justus Proffit
L.A.'s Got Me Down
Nick’s Pick: My World My Rules: This dark indie rock/noise track reminiscent of Built to Spill features some gorgeous dual vocals and a wonky guitar line. The ending however, superbly demonstrates the stark contrasts of the chilling vocal work with the subdued malevolence of the noise. Great stuff. 4/5 |
| 9 |  | Daedelus
Invention
Nick’s Pick: Experience: Wow I never knew where the Accordion sample from Madvillainy’s Accordion came from until now, and man is it spectacular. Starting with what sounds to be a broken music box, evolves into a sincere and downtrodden accordion accompanied by occasional hums. A mesmerizing track that is depressingly beautiful. My Rating: 5/5 |
| 10 |  | Sam Gellaitry
Escapism III
Nick’s Pick: Acres: Never have I ever been so disappointed with a beat drop in my entire life. The track begins with this ethereal build and glistening female hum before fading into a quite beautiful combo of acoustic guitar and piano. Yet, when the soundscape incorporates a beat that seems to disorientate the music, it loses a lot of the impact that the soundscape had going for it. My Rating 2.5/5 |
| 11 |  | P.O.S
Audition
My Pick: P.O.S. is Ruining My Life: I was a huge fan of P.O.S.’s never better when I first heard that in 2015, but have yet to check out any of his other work until recently. P.O.S. is Ruining My Life plays on the punk production that P.O.S. is known for and builds on it with some visceral lyrics and vicious flow. Makes me think of a what if scenario if Eminem did Punk/Hip-Hop. My Rating: 4/5 |
| 12 |  | Soccer Mommy
Color Theory
Luke’s Pick: Circle the Drain: Some nice dream-pop/indie-rock that sounds like a more energized Phoebe Bridges in my opinion. While this is the first track I have checked out from the artists, the hazy atmosphere and entrancing chorus make this a pretty good track to start with in getting into the artist (even if her stage name is a bit awful). My Rating: 3.5/5 |
| 13 |  | Mineral
February/ M.D.
My Pick: M.D.: One of the most uplifting and touching emo tracks of the 90’s. Although Mineral is mostly associated with their two LP’s, there exists the two track EP of February/M.D. that contains two of the bands most underappreciated gems. M.D. is about vocalist Chris Simpson finding solace in meeting with his brother for the first time in years for his Wedding. It has all the love and emotion that is found within a Mineral song, but the added emphasis of the uplifting and personal lyrics makes this one of the band’s best tracks. The final lyrics, paired with the absolutely breathtaking finale nail it, “She's beautiful and i know that you'll be happy/So take this as my blessing/Wrapped up with all the love/That i can send/Cause you are my brother my friend/And my superior till the end. My Rating: 5/5 |
| 14 |  | Los Campesinos!
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
My Pick: Miserabelia: A joyous decree of misery from a band that honestly has never released anything nearly as good as some of the material found on this record. Miserabelia is a remarkable effort in emo/indie-rock with duet vocals both male and female. The vocals are by far my favorite part of the song, with clashes in styles from the sloppy and passionate delivery of the male vocals only to be accompanied by the precious reprises of the female vocals. A definitive classic in the genre. My Rating: 5/5 |
| 15 |  | Toshio Matsuura Group
LOVEPLAYDANCE
Nick’s Pick: DO THE ASTRAL PLANE: Aside from having one of the coolest names for a song ever, this 8 minute long jazz-fusion track is a vividly funky and captivating take on both electronic and jazz. The horn performances are stellar, and the atmosphere is oozing personality with each new section. Quite crazy this thing only has two votes on here, because if the rest of the album is nearly this good, I highly recommend checking the entire thing out. My Rating: 4.5/5 |
| 16 |  | Delta Sleep
Ghost City
Trevor’s Pick: Single File: One of my favorite Math-rock albums in quite some time, Single File itself is definitely one of the stand out tracks across this concept albums perfect run time. The guitar/vocal work is exceptional here, especially as the track begins to crescendo towards the middle section with female vocals. My Rating: 4.5/5 |
| 17 |  | Eyedea and Abilities
First Born
Trevor’s Pick: Red Wiped in Blue: Some of the most morbid lyrics you can find in hip-hop on this LP, with this one containing some of the most disturbing. I tried to get into this album around 2014 when I was super into alt-hip-hop, but never really got too into it. Coming back to this however, I have a newfound appreciation for just how dense the rhymes and beats are. The chorus in particular is horrifying. My Rating: 4/5 |
| 18 |  | Amon Tobin
Fear In A Handful Of Dust
Trevor’s Pick: Vipers Follow You: An incredibly dense and perplexing piece of ambient music that is sure to attract your attention right off the start. It sounds as if you are being prayed upon the jungle by a ferocious animal, only to be lost in the abyss of the sea just moments after the frantic cello picking stops. A very unique experience. My Rating: 4.5/5 |
| 19 |  | Ka
The Night's Gambit
Trevor’s Pick: You Know It’s About: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz huh what? Oh Ka’s rapping? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz… In all seriousness though this is by far one of the better tracks that I have heard from the guy, especially due to the production which is both exhilarating and claustrophobic. Ka continues to be his own greatest weakness though, with his performance being rather dull despite his intelligent lyrics. My Rating: 3/5 |
| 20 |  | Trouble Knows Me
Trouble Knows Me
Trevor’s Pick: From Trouble They Know Me: The horn sample on this thing is crazy infectious, and the MC’s performance flows perfectly with the boom-bap and creative lyrics. As the lyrics progressively get more and more introspective and violent, the mood never changes; making the track feel more visceral. A really fun track. My Rating: 3.5/5 |
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